What Did Jesus Mean By 'The Kingdom of God'? Fall 2014

Once again, let me make the point that you must read your sources carefully. Consider this:


For Jews, the Kingdom of God was more of a political or geographical matter than a religious one. It revolved around the image of the Messiah as the anointed one, who was often seen as the human incarnation of God. The job of this so-called Messiah was to bring Israel to the Promised Land...

Did I read that right? Jews expected God Incarnate? Surely not. So let's check.

The source referred to by the student is this web-site.

The source states:


For many Christians, God's ultimate miracle was His Self-Incarnation as a human being. In this view, God was both fully human and yet also fully divine, both limited in intelligence and yet omniscient, simultaneously. Philosophically and logically, these claims appear mutually incompatible. Yet the early church insisted that both truths be held together.


So, the view that the Messiah is God incarnate is said to be the Christian view, not the Jewish one. The Jewish view is:


Within Judaism, the Mashiach is a human being who will be a descendant of King David, and who will usher in a messianic era of peace and prosperity for Israel and all the nations of the world.

So, in reading the source, the student has confused the Jewish and the Christian view. Furthermore, the student says that the Messiah was expected to lead the Jews to Israel. But, in the time of Jesus, the Jews were already in Israel. The source, however, was referring to the views of Moses Maimonides, who lived from 1135 to 1204  CE. Maimonides is one of the most important Jewish philosophers, and a good source to use to understand Jewish views in the Middle Ages. However, he was writing after the Jews had been driven out of the Holy Land by the Romans, and hoped that the Messiah could lead them back there. In Jesus time, the Jews were in the right place and didn't need to be led there. What they needed was liberation. So, read your sources carefully. The student fails to notice that, although the source is about Judaism, it begins by mentioning Christian views to show that these are different. The source is about current Jewish beliefs, which is why Maimonides is a useful source. But you are writing about Jewish beliefs in the time of Jesus - not exactly the same thing.


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